Opus 2026-265: The Seasonal Tradeoff

Today, as I write, a glorious morning is developing.  It is one of those days where the entire visible spectrum is evolving in front of my eyes.

At the same time the mosquitoes are feeling their oats.

Is one worth the other?

Decisions. Decisions.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-222: Dark Thoughts: A Pagan Morning

I have often quoted the words of Paul about how even those who do not know the God of the Bible through His revealed word know Him from His creation.

Romans 1:18-20 (KJV) 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

While it is true I find it usually a blithe declaration that I seldom embrace literally.

This morning, on the porch, I got a great taste of God’s glory.  I found that I had not looked at the written word yet because the horizon had such promise.  At the moment it has an appearance I have not seen before.  Picture a scene showing a volcano erupting and hot, glowing lava flowing down the mountain side.  Now turn it over.  That is the sky this morning.  It is a sea of red and gray with highlights of glowing orange and it is all flowing to pass over my head.

Truly I can see the glory of God in the creation.  I feel like a pagan waking up to an awareness that those Jews in Israel may know something I don’t.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-263: Dark Thoughts: Parallels

As I was being thankful this morning, I stop to think about how my old car made it from Central Texas, to Central Michigan and routed back through Western Illinois and into Kansas City without a hiccup, a burp or even a momentary bad attitude.  The car is 23 years old and it ran like an Olympic athlete.  I was impressed.  Although I am aware that it’s a machine I still at times personify things and I thanked it several times.  I gave it a few pats on the dash.  I had the oil changed to celebrate, and wonder of wonders, I drove through a car wash.  Now you know I was impressed.  I’ve had the car for about two years and hadn’t washed it yet.  I may make it a the regular event just to encourage its pistons.

Since I’m still in thankful mode, I began to thank God for my health.  I have a lot of similarities to that old car.  In the car the fan for the AC will only run on high.  That’s OK because that’s the only way I want to run it.  There are a few other things that are not quite up to factory original, but none of them affect the quality of the ride or the dependability.  I can say the same thing about me.  I am getting old.  I wonder how old I am in car years?  I have my aches and pains.  I have ears that are on a downward spiral.  There are times when even I am aware that my mind isn’t as sharp as it used to be.  Even then it seems to be sharper than most of the people I run into on the street.

I had a great trip.  I renewed connections with family.  I saw friends.  I had a lot of time for silent meditation driving through the farms and fields of America.  I found my way home.  I’m sure my wife had questions about the possibilities of that but my son has a tracking device on my phone so they could find me if I started wondering into New York City or some such nonsense.

Life is full of blessings.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-260: Dark thoughts: Sometimes Impossible

I am out on the front porch enjoying God’s creation in the Texas morning.  As I write, the first indications of orange and pink are spreading themselves across the horizon.  I am rejoicing in being able to be in the presence of God outside, staring at the sky, enjoying what He has provided.  At the same time I’m aware that all are not in my situation.

Yesterday I was talking to my son-in-law.  He has to be at work every morning at 6 o’clock.  He has two young children at home.  He’s about 30 minutes from his job.  I think it’s probably a little unrealistic to expect him to be getting up and spending quality time with the Lord in the morning.  He agrees with me.  It’s always good when people agree with you.  It’s good to know that they are also right.

So I accept that there are some cases where you just can’t do this early in the morning.  At the same time for those of you who have the flexibility I remind you that often it’s not a matter of can you, it’s a matter of will you.  I remember when I first made the commitment myself back when I was still working.  I started rising at 5 o’clock, which is still my rough target now in retirement.  But I did so in order to make it through rush-hour traffic.  I would get close to where I worked, go to Panera’s and order coffee, and sit down with my Bible for a time of personal worship.  It certainly didn’t match watching the sun come up over Texas hill country, but it met the need.  On Saturdays I would get up and spend the time in my big recliner as I did my laundry.

You may be locked in a situation that makes this very difficult.  God will see you through.  Grab what time you can.  For those who are simply not there yet I urge you to find a way to spend that time, focusing on the things of the Lord.  No guilt.  It really pays off.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-231: Dark Thoughts: The Voice of God

I was sitting out in the morning darkness when my isolation was repealed by thunder and lightning.   As I celebrate the day and, since it’s Easter morning, the resurrection, a phrase from Psalms came to mind,

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

As I listened to the thunder and saw my vista being lit up by lightning, I can understand how the pagans used to think of their gods expressing their anger and dissatisfaction.  As a Bible reader, on the other hand, I think about how Jesus said that people if didn’t praise him the rocks would cry out.

(Luk 19:40 KJV)  And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

And I think that this is just the world that God has created becoming personified and expressive.

At this point my idealistic pondering, was interrupted by a crash of thunder, so close that I decided maybe it was time to take my praise inside.

What is the difference between an every day occurrence and a miracle?  I think you can get an indication by comparing a sunny afternoon with a thunderstorm in the dark.  It is the same laws of physics. It is the same hill that I sit on.  All of the physical world is the same in both situations but in someway that can be explained by science, God stirs up the elements and puts on a display.  Whether this lightning storm was planned from the creation of the world, or was just a momentary display of God’s glory doesn’t make any difference.  It’s still an example of how the laws of physics can be used to produce miraculous situations.

What a glorious world we live in.

 homo unius libri

Opus 2025-226: Dark Thoughts: The War in Front of Me

As I sit in the dark, contemplating eternity, and enjoying my speculation on what it would be like to live in the New Jerusalem and on the new earth that has been remade, I realize that as good as it is now this will seem like boredom city when I’m in the presence of God.

And as I looked out over the valley and how peaceful and quiet it was this early in the morning, I realize that as peaceful as it looks, there’s really a war going on in front of me.  You see the leaves are falling off the trees, settling to the ground and decomposing.  There’s that constant battle between the living and the dead.  There are insects, crawling all over this yard, eating each other, hunting each other in constant warfare.

Inside my body the war rages also.  I have invading viruses and bacteria that are doing everything they can to satisfy their need, which is going to kill me if it is allowed victory.  Meeting those enemies is an army of white blood cells and other things that God has put in place in my immune system.  So far the battle goes well.  So far I’m on the victory side.  There’s going to be a brief time somewhere when the viruses and bacteria have a moment of victory laps, but it won’t last long, because I will be resurrected.

Nations are rising against nations.  Out there in the world there are people looking through sniper scopes, planting explosives, ready to kill those they hate even if they don’t know them.  Crime is rampant.  There’s so much devastating reality just over the hill.

And while all the warfare is going on, I live in a bubble of Providence.  I live in a valley of peace.  And I trust the Lord to take me through the shadow of death.

Mornings are really wonderful times to contemplate what is in front on you and in side you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-209: Dark Thoughts: God Is Not a Robot

This morning. I am sitting inside instead of on the porch.  I have an electrical fire going in the fireplace, and I am waiting to see when my grandchildren wake up in the other room.  But my mind still reaches out to the Lord and He kicks me down different rabbit trails.

This morning I was reflecting on the two terms “grace” and “faith”, and how they relate to salvation.  Whenever I think about these things, one of the concepts that comes to my mind, is the concept of “free will”. Technically, it is not a biblical term, but the concept it’s all through scripture.

What got me this morning was not the applying free will to my faith, but it occurred to me that part of being created in the image of God, and believing that gives me free will, should also cause me to extend free will to God himself.  That seems silly, possibly, but think about the Calvinistic concept of grace.  Just like faith, the reformed tradition seems to lock God into a mechanical, robotic, no choice, response, or extension of the gift of grace for salvation.  They want to deny that God has any clear reasons for why He extends that grace.

I tend to think that God is not capricious and automatic.  I believe He has reasons for what He does.  When you consider the fact that in reality we are incapable of being perfect, and that we have all sinned, and that we cannot save ourselves, then, obviously God hast to do something.  It is up to God to decide when to do something and for Him to do that something.  I have no problem with that.  God is God.  He sees things that we aren’t even aware of, let alone understanding.  That does not mean that He does not consider who we are, what we are or what is in our hearts and minds.  I think it’s clear to us that He does, that’s why we have repeated statements that we will be rewarded for what we do.

It is impossible to separate totally our actions from our heart desires.  God can read our hearts.  God can see what’s in our minds and evaluate our actions in light of that.  That is His choice as God.  He can extend His grace or withhold it.

In essence, God has free will, just as He has given us that quality.  Don’t try to make Him a vending machine who responds when we push the right button or a slave master who forces us to push that button.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-170: Discerning Deer

Looking out over my yard in the Texas hill country I noticed that there are several places where the grass has staged an early recovery from the frost in anticipation of spring.  In some places it’s growing well.  Most places are still totally dead.  Every once in a while, I will see deer grazing on the grass and I always wonder why they choose what they do and ignore others.  Now the big question I have with deer or that I’ve heard other people ask is why do they all seem to disappear when deer season opens?  I have a few suggestions:

It could just be some mystical force radiated by the deer gods telling them to go hide.  Never rule out the possibility of the supernatural.

It could be much simpler.  Maybe they hear gunshots over the next ridge and then put 22 and 22 together.  I used to see this kind of behavior at middle school.  Everyone was minding their own business doing whatever it is that middle school students do when no one tells them what they should be doing.  Suddenly someone yells “Fight”.  If it’s a real fight they sense it and they all rush toward it from all over campus.  If it’s just somebody trying to start a stampede, they sense that also and just stay where they are doing what they’re doing.  Reverse that with a deer, it takes about the same amount of intelligence.

It could be that they hear the sound of pop tops from the beer cans being opened on the back of the pick ups along with the raucous laughter of drunk hunters telling dirty jokes.  Again, it doesn’t take a lot of brain power to know they need to be somewhere else.

It could be the Daniel Boones of the twenty-first century sneaking through the forest and making enough noise to wake the dead.

It could be that the national weather service put out a warning about flash, floods, high winds, and hunter’s over the internet, which the deer picked up on their Fitbits.

Anyway, you look at it they’re not eating my grass today.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-146: Dark thoughts: Maybe

The people who talk about not needing to go to church, but being able to worship God in nature might have a point, although I am suspicious that most of them are just too lazy to get up on Sunday morning and make it to church.  There is something about the outside that makes it easier to worship God.

I am noticing this because for the first time in a couple weeks, I’ve been able to be out on the porch as the sun is still just a distance threat.  The sky is overcast, so there are no stars to see, but I can see across the valley lights on the other hills and the distant illumination of the cities around me.  There is also that expansive sense of something bigger than me.  It’s hard to get that sitting in an enclosed room, even with the window open.

So if you get a chance, worship outside.  Or I guess another way of saying it is when you’re outside pause, look up, contemplate the grandeur that surrounds you and worship.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-443: Dark Thoughts: Leash Laws

I am sitting on the porch in the dark of the morning.  If I were a pagan, I would say that the sun was still asleep.  As a modern, I know that the Earth has rotated just far enough for me to see the beginnings of sunrise.

Enter the dog walker.  I’ve mentioned this one before.  It’s a lady that wears a multicolored radiating vest that shines out in the dark.  She has a dog on a leash if you look close enough.  When she came this morning she once again interrupted my meditation on the nature of God, and what it must be like to be in eternal being with an awareness and a personality and power.  Does God get bored?  What does it mean to be created in the image of God?  So many different rabbit trails to go down and most of them in my current form of finite human being are impossible to terminate satisfactorily.

As I watched the dog being walked, I had insights into what it must be like as God leads us along.  They would be going along just fine when suddenly the dog would have a “squirrel” moment.  It would dash off to the side and start sniffing with great vigor at some spot on the ground.  I don’t have any idea what it was sniffing.  The lady walking it probably didn’t want to know either, but she initially patiently allowed the dog to have it’s time for curiosity. Eventually, they turned and moved on again down the road.  I don’t know if the dog had sniffed enough or if the lady jerked his leash.  Either way they moved ahead on their appointed rounds.

In my inquisitive moment of mind, I saw parallels between how God deals with his people.  At least he kind of deals with me that way.  He is taking me on a walk.  I am on a journey.  I’m hoping that I am on what one translation calls, the Highway of Holiness.  But every once in a while I get these sudden squirrel moments and get off on a tangent.  God is very patient.  He allows me to investigate.  But eventually it’s time to move on.  The lady walking the dog knows how far she’s going, when she will turn around, what the total route is, and where she’s going to end up.  The dog is just happy to be out, sniffing the air.

I realize that God is not just out taking us for a walk.  I realize that since I’m created in the image of God, I have much more in common with Him than this dog has with the lady on the leash.  But there are parallels, which I find interesting.  How easily we get distracted.  I’ve also noticed that when older dogs are being walked in the neighborhood, they tend to know to stay on task and not get pulled aside by every little bit of interest.  They are on their way and trusting the person they are walking with.

So trust God.  Rejoice in your little side trips when you think you’ll find something interesting.  Trust that eventually God will get you back on track.  Try to make it you looking for the track rather than him jerking on your leash.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-440: Dark Thoughts: Creation Strikes Again

I think of the logic question usually advanced by people who are interested in gotcha, “Could God, make a square circle?”  What we overlook on this is that God does not seem to have been interested in making a perfect circle.  When you look at something like a planet, which we think of is a globe it’s not really a perfect globe.  They tell me it’s more like a pear.  Stars are constantly sending out streams of plasma.  It’s almost like the creative nature of God refuses to be confined to standard recognized shapes.  Aside from the point that the God who established logic would not flout it, I don’t think He would care to try.

I was looking at the trees.  I’ve heard that no two snowflakes are the same.  How much more so that is true for trees.  The laws of physics always seem to have a deeper level.  Chemistry is the same.  The basic building blocks are assumed to be the same but the results always vary.  What does this tell us about the nature of God”

God created the world.  We have the Genesis account.  God knew what He wanted written and the Holy Spirit was managing editor.  I think that perhaps the seven days of creation were presented in such a way so that we would continue to argue about them forever.  That way we would not get too complacent, and to set in our ways.  God wants us to exercise or minds.  That way we are challenged to constantly flex and expand our understanding not only of our universe but of Him.  Theology can help us to understand.  It can also limit our understanding by insisting on putting things in boxes that won’t contain them.  Keep trying, but don’t get too upset that the concepts of God keep busting out.

It may be silly, but as I was looking around and thinking about things to be thankful for I noticed how the branches of the tree were outlined even in the dark.  I couldn’t see the leaves, but I imagined each of them being totally unique.  Yes, they had many things in common.  They might even look the same to the casual observer.  But in His creative genius, God allowed each of them to develop in their own way.  How much more is that true for those of us that are created in His image?

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-405: Dark Thoughts: Deaf Thoughts

As I sat in the dark, enjoying the morning, my tranquility was suddenly disrupted by the noise of a large motorcycle accelerating up a hill nearby.  It seems that there are certain people who love noisy engines.  I know it’s a love affair, because there are some cars that go by and the only reason I know they’re going by is the noise of their tires on the pavement.  Those people don’t love noise or need to be noticed.  The bikers want you to hear every piston, going up and down.  It’s either because they can’t afford a muffler or they like the racket.

I’m sure that most of these are men.  The mystery to me is whether they still have decent hearing or whether they have destroyed it by their love of the throttle.  I have been in cars where the driver felt the need to put it to the floor and throw my head against the back of the seat.  Often that is accompanied by a very satisfying roar.  At least it’s satisfying to the driver.  I am not impressed by either one.

We all know about how people who are into rock music played by loudspeakers and overwhelming their eardrums.  Sometimes this is multiplied by headphones.  These people tend to be deaf.  Younger people tend to be having problems with her hearing.  I’m thinking it may be also true I have guys that like cars with cut outs or broken mufflers.

No, I don’t want a law passed.  I think there are already laws passed about noise.  I am not sure I want them enforced for the occasional cycle or muscle car.  I can put up with a little piston serenade in order to keep the government out of my life.  We have enough laws.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-355 Dark Thoughts: Leading the Blind

I was sitting in the dark enjoying the morning, and suddenly there was this noise.  I couldn’t figure it out.  Was someone sneaking up on me?  Was there an animal trapped in my attic.  It kept knocking and making this sound, and kept moving around.  I turned on my flashlight and couldn’t find anything.  I sat down in the dark again and kept hearing the sound.

Finally, I was determined to figure out what it was.  It turned out to be a giant mouth as big as my thumb, I exaggerate not.  And I have a big thumb, trust me.  It seem to be wanting to knock against the roof in the corner of the eve of the roof.  It was totally disoriented.  Eventually I decided that I would take the broom, wave it like a magic wand and help it to escape from the porch and get out into the open air.  I turned on my flashlight and fixed it on the moth, thinking that it might be drawn toward the light itself.  That didn’t happen.  Instead when I targeted the beam on the ceiling, the moth was drawn toward the light on the panels, and so I gradually led it out and to the point where it was able to fly out into the open air and embrace its freedom.

I may not be Harriet Tubman but I certainly hope this month find its way into the freedom of the open sky.  A job well done.  Thank you.  I couldn’t have done it without you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-330: Dark Thoughts: First Person Possessive

I found myself thinking about “my God”.  It struck me that it was a little bit strange for this finite creature, who sometimes can’t even remember where he put his keys, to be acting like God is a possession.  I’d probably think of it that way sometimes but not when my mind is turned on.

Yahweh, the God of heaven, the creator of the Earth, the everlasting, the first and last is my God, but not in the sense that I say, “This is my teddy bear”.  It’s not like me saying this is my home or this is my car.  God is not an object that we process.  He is not something we control.  In fact, it’s just the opposite.

When I say “my God”, it’s more the idea that I have been allowed to be a part of something much bigger than myself.  For instants, say I worked at Tesla.  I could say that this is “my company”.  I don’t think that Elon Musk would get offended at such a thing.  He would know what I meant.  He would know that I meant I was a part of something much bigger and faster than myself.  And that since I said “Yahweh is my God” I can address Him that way and both He and I know what I mean.

I think of a quote that is attributed to Abraham Lincoln.  It is something like, “It’s not so important if God is on our side as to our being on God’s side.”  He offered me a place on the assembly line.  All the management positions were filled, but at the bottom He had  a slot for another soul.  One of the great things about God as the CEO of eternity is His open door policy.

So I start the morning thinking about “my God.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-280: Dark Thoughts: Is God a Chicken? Part 2 of 2

If you are a cynic that starts from the position of rejecting God and the Bible, you say a camel going through a needle’s eye is stupid.  Who could believe such garbage?  If you are a scholar with multiple PhD’s, you would come up with some very clever explanation, such as I have heard several times.  The geniuses of the ivory towers try to tell you that there was a small door in the big gates of the city, and at night when the gates were closed, no one was allowed in unless they came through the small door.  The store was so small that a camel could only get through if you totally unloaded him and pushing and pulling, and shoving, forced him through the opening. this small door was called the eye of the needle, according to the intellectuals.

When you interpret scripture, you can come from different angles.  You can rely on your own genius to come up with incredibly creative possibilities.  You can deny everything and continue down the road to hell.  Or you can read the context and come up with a relatively simple explanation.  This is a process that can be applied to just about any part of scripture.  Of course, results may vary.  And of course it may not work.  If it doesn’t work, consider that you are thinking about eternal things coming from the mind of God and you are not really expected to understand everything.  You are expected to try and understand and be open to growing.  You are not necessarily going to figure everything out.  That is the nature of prophecy.  Expecting to figure everything out is also an ingredient in arrogance and hubris.

I believe that usually people of goodwill, and who are not too smart for their own good, can figure things out that they read in the Bible.  It doesn’t take a genius to recognize figures of speech and literary devices.  You see them every day.  You recognized him immediately.  Take the camel illustration for instance.  Most intelligent people realize that is not possible.  They don’t go looking for miraculous explanations.  They don’t scream “liar.  They say, “Oh, that must be a figure of speech”, if they went to high school and paid attention, they would even recognize it as hyperbole.  There are many places in the Bible were simply not trying to be too clever, will give you a reasonable explanation.

It is up to you to apply these principles from a heart that wants to know what God is saying in a mind that is open to learning.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-279: Dark Thoughts: Is God a Chicken?, Part 1 of 2

One of the ways in which I begin my day is to contemplate what God is like.  That can morph into spiritual hallucinations.  You can touch on the futility of the physical aspects.  It could be intellectual.  Ultimately I come to the place where I accept the clear, concise, accurate description of God is beyond my comprehension.

Think of the different ways in which you would have to put the details together to get a literal description of God.  One of my favorites is that He is a big chicken.  Notice this,

(Psa 91:4 KJV)  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Feathers?  Wings?  I would say no one in their right mind would ever genuinely consider God to be a chicken, but then I think of some of the people I’ve met, and discussed things with, and have to back away from that statement.

What this puts me in mind of is interpreting scripture.  We often come across things in the Bible that are either difficult to understand, or, to be honest, impossible for us to understand.  And that speaks of prophecy.  I’ve just finished reading Isaiah.  There are long passages of vague references to unknown places and people that I will never be able to figure out.  That is either because I can’t or I’m just too lazy.  Or it’s on my bucket list and I probably won’t get to it before I die.

But let’s take some thing where we understand every word, and can even get a picture of it in our minds, but we need to try and understand what the Bible is saying.  Take, for instance, the reference to a camel going through the eye of a needle.

(Mat 19:24 KJV)  And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Now you can approach this from several different ways.  A person of normal intelligence and goodwill would look at that, read the context, and understand that Jesus is using hyperbole to make a point.  It would be obvious that a camel cannot go through the eye of a needle.  The response of the disciples makes it sound like a literal statement and makes them seem a bit slow.  Jesus then goes on and explains that, yes, it is indeed impossible, but God can do anything.

You can get all that from reading but that is not good enough for some people.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-277: Dark Thoughts: The Image

What does God see in human beings?  What is there about us that garners His attention?  Even asking the question seems to be heading down the path marked heresy..

I was wondering if out of the millions of people who love and serve Yahweh there were any that ever had a thought original and creative enough to somehow affected the being of God.  I’m not even sure what kind of word to use here to describe it, but something that is expressed in a different way, a new way or is totally creative.  And then you add the billions that live in rebellion and reject Him.  He is aware of their thoughts as well.  In all of that mass of humanity are their creative moments that speaks to the inner person of God?

We know that God is complete.  We know that He doesn’t need anything.  We know that He doesn’t have to do anything.  There’s a term in theology, aseity which refers to the concept that God is self contained and not dependent on anything.  And yet when He made us in His image, I’m wondering if that did not also give us the ability to be totally creative, to come up with things that are genuinely new.

Real creativity is a rare thing even in human circles.  Much of what we call creative is just making a small variation on something that another person thought up . Occasionally, though, someone actually comes up with something totally new and outside the box.  It could be something as simple as the wheel or as complex as the theory of relativity.  I’m wondering out of the trillions of thoughts every day by those created in God’s image, is there an occasional glimmer of something new that catches God’s attention?

There must be some reason He created us and keeps us around.  It certainly isn’t for our looks, our singing voices, obedience, or a myriad of other things.  But here we are, and here He is.

Someday I will get an answer.  Probably in eternity.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-166: Dark Thoughts: The Quiet That Isn’t

Recently I had a discussion where I mentioned how quiet the front porch was before sunrise on Sunday.  It’s so quiet I can hear my ears ringing.  Other days of the week there are brief moments like this, and I find myself enjoying the quietness.

Today I recognize the fact that it’s not as quiet as I think it is.

The bugs are out giving a concert.  I don’t know what they are.  They look like fat grasshoppers.  They might be katydids.  They might be some other obscure form of life.  They are Texas big and make Texas noise.  It doesn’t get quiet, it just supplies a natural background noise.

And as I think back before the grasshoppers started giving a concert, the local animals like to check in too.  I can hear donkeys braying across the valley.  Other animals make their contribution.  And then the birds will join in.  It’s never really all that quiet.  It’s just that the quiet that I experience seems that way.  It seems more natural.

Have a blessed day.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-095: Dark Thoughts: Not Alone

My heart was warmed by what I witnessed in the morning darkness.  Across the street the lady that lives there leaves to go to work early in the morning.  Often it is still dark as it was today.  Sometimes as early as 5 o’clock.  Today she left a little bit later.  It was light enough that she might’ve seen me waving to her.  She started down the road.  She didn’t even get out of sight before she stopped, backed up, went back into her driveway, and got out of the car.  She then went in the house to get whatever it was she forgot, came back out, got in the car again, and proceeded on her way.

I don’t know about you, but I have been there many times.  It is always encouraging to see people who are much younger than me having the same problems in life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-064: Dark Thoughts: Hunting Zombies

On Easter Sunday as we were eating dinner, we were discussing different aspects of the resurrection story and the crucifixion.  One of the events that we found puzzling was all the people that evidently were raised from the dead, and came out of their graves at the moment of Jesus death.

(Mat 27:52 KJV)  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
(Mat 27:53 KJV)  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Someone asked what happened to them?  Someone else suggested they went home to see their families?

I have no idea.  The Bible doesn’t tell us, but this morning, sitting in the dark, I wondered what Jesus did during the time between his appearing in the upper room and his ascension.  We have a couple of events related to us, but most of it is history.

It occurred to me that perhaps he was out gathering up these wandering souls and bodies and returning them to their graves.  Or he could’ve been gathering them and sending them straight to Paradise.  We will never know but these are the strange paths that my mind goes through sitting on the porch in the morning.

Yes, you can pray for me.

homo unius libri